Food capital: Joe McNamee rates Cork’s top restaurants

Is Cork still the culinary capital? Joe McNamee has his say – and profiles the restaurants that are doing it right.

“There are three [best restaurants in Ireland] and it hurts me as a Dubliner that all of them are outside the capital city. Come with me then, though it sticks in my craw, for a gastronomic trot around the County of Cork.” – Cathal O’Shannon, 1971.

This was how the late, great broadcaster introduced his 1971 film, Cork’s Glorious Food, following an introductory evisceration of the Irish hospitality sector at the time, concurring with international food critics that, save a handful of restaurants, it was truly dire.